UNASSIGNED: We report a facile synthetic strategy to prepare UBL-AMP electrophilic probes that form a covalent bond with the catalytic cysteine of cognate E1s, mimicking the tetrahedral intermediate of the E1-UBL-AMP complex.

To demonstrate that HvPPA could drive thermodynamically unfavorable reactions to completion under conditions of reduced water activity, a novel coupled assay was developed; HvPPA hydrolyzed the PPi by-product generated in 2 M NaCl by UbaA (a "salt-loving" noncanonical E1 enzyme that adenylates ubiquitin-like proteins in the presence of ATP).

The ubiquitination of proteins occurs through a three-step process involving ubiquitin activation by the E1 enzyme, allowing for the transfer to a ubiquitin-conjugated enzyme E2 and to the targeted protein via ubiquitin-protein ligases (E3), the most abundant group of enzymes involved in ubiquitination.

We succeeded in isolating various compounds with three distinct inhibitory activities against an E1 enzyme reaction, Ubc13 (E2)-Uev1A interaction, and p53-HDM2 (E3) interaction as well as the proteasome inhibitors.